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By Chinenye Anuforo
Internet calling services, known in the communication circle as Licensed Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), are heading for trouble in Nigeria.
The case is panning out like the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), an older mobile network that faded away after people moved to better options.
The gradual demise of VoIP stems from the fact that millions of users in Nigeria have switched to cheaper and easier apps like WhatsApp, Zoom and Google Meet.
Fresh data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed a sector under pressure, with subscriber numbers shrinking sharply despite rising broadband penetration and growing internet usage across the country.
Smile Communications, currently Nigeria’s only active licensed VoIP operator, recorded just 192,444 active lines in March 2026, representing a steep decline from its peak of 371,878 lines posted in October 2023.
The development has reignited fears that licensed VoIP may be sliding towards the same fate that swallowed CDMA technology, which once promised to revolutionise Nigeria’s telecom landscape before disappearing almost completely.
The warning signs are becoming harder to ignore. Pioneer operator NTEL, which emerged from the remains of the defunct state-owned NITEL, currently has zero subscribers and failed to meet its planned first-quarter 2026 relaunch target, underscoring the deepening crisis within the segment.
VoIP technology allows users to make voice and video calls over internet networks instead of conventional telephone infrastructure. While industry experts acknowledged its technical strengths, operators admit that the business model is increasingly struggling against the rise of free or low-cost over-the-top applications.
Chief Executive Officer of Smile Communications, Abhulime Ehiagwina, insists the technology still offers considerable value, particularly for underserved consumers and businesses requiring stable communications.
“VoIP is still viable, especially for underserved or non-served consumers. Your call rate is fixed. If you are in China speaking with somebody in Nigeria, it is that same N13 or N14. There is no change,” he said.
According to him, licensed VoIP delivers predictable pricing, stronger reliability and fewer network interruptions compared to app-based communication services.
“On VoIP, once you are connected, you are connected, irrespective of how tiny the network is. As against internet apps where you will be looking at latency and lags,” Ehiagwina explained.
He further argued that the system offers superior protection against cyber threats.
“It is very hard to break into. Hacking is very difficult because of the hard code. On VoIP, you can’t have that easily like on WhatsApp,” he added.
Beyond security, operators say VoIP still provides fixed call charges, free on-net services, stronger performance on weaker networks and easier subscription management.
Yet those advantages are proving insufficient in a market increasingly driven by convenience and affordability.
Industry experts say the unfolding scenario resembles the painful decline of CDMA, which entered Nigeria in the early 2000s through operators such as Starcomms, Multi-Links and Visafone.
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At the time, CDMA offered consumers clearer voice quality and challenged NITEL’s dominance. However, the technology eventually collapsed under the burden of limited coverage, expensive operations, poor device compatibility and weak roaming capacity.
As nationwide GSM networks led by MTN and Airtel expanded aggressively with cheaper devices and broader coverage, CDMA subscriptions crashed.
By 2019, NCC records showed zero active CDMA subscribers.
Today, licensed VoIP appears trapped in a similar battle.
Despite Nigeria’s broadband penetration reaching 53.86 percent and mobile internet users surpassing 150 million, consumers are increasingly choosing free messaging and calling applications.
Ehiagwina blamed both technological disruption and the high cost of operations.
“In technology, there is hard-coded stuff and soft-coded stuff. Hard-coded stuff is hard. You have to pass wire here. You have to climb this mast. You have to tune your radio. Soft-coded things like WhatsApp are easy to navigate. When there is an issue, it is easy to quickly push an update,” he said.
He admitted that many operators have abandoned the segment because of its heavy financial demands.
“Most operators have seen that operating VoIP is capital intensive. That is why a lot of operators who started it have dropped it. The cost of running VoIP is really, really high,” he noted.
Smile, he said, has remained in the market largely because it combines VoIP operations with broadband services and still maintains a loyal customer base.
“We still have consumers that we service on our VoIP capabilities that we do not want to lose. At the end of the day, when we look at the bottom line, it is not a loss, even though it is not as profitable as it should be,” he said.
The company, however, acknowledged that shifting consumer behaviour is compounding the challenge.
“The word loyalty doesn’t exist anymore. Everybody has two SIMs or more. Sometimes three or four. If I want to spend N3,000 with Smile and I am going to Owerri where Smile is not available, automatically I will give Smile just N1,000,” Ehiagwina stated.
Amid the growing concerns, the NCC has begun policy interventions aimed at strengthening the sector.
The regulator recently launched a comprehensive 26-year review of Nigeria’s National Telecommunications Policy with emphasis on VoIP, over-the-top services and infrastructure sharing. It also directed operators to compensate customers affected by poor service delivery.
While welcoming regulatory engagement, Ehiagwina called for stronger enforcement measures.
“The big players in the industry are strangling everyone that is small. There needs to be fair play,” he said.
Analysts warned that unless Nigeria addresses infrastructure bottlenecks, reduces right-of-way charges and creates frameworks allowing licensed operators participate more effectively in the digital app economy, licensed VoIP could suffer the same total disappearance that erased CDMA from the telecom ecosystem.
